By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Defense lawyer in the on-going trial of former staff of the revenue authority, NRA, Ecobank and National Shipping Company, has dismissed statements earlier made by his clients.
Emmanuel Teddy Koroma told a Freetown High Court on Monday that those statements earlier made by his client, the 9th accused Sheka Kpanabom, must not form part of the evidence against him “because he didn’t make the statement voluntarily”.
He argued that confessions should be made freely and voluntarily and that it should be clearly shown by prosecution that such a confession had been made without the accused being induced by either a promise or otherwise.
“Where the case is a contrary of this, the confession or admission should not be accepted as evidence against the accused person”, he submitted and urged the court to reject the statement saying “it would cause injustice and deprive the 9th accused the right to a fair trial”.
Defense for the 1st accused also objected to the statement tendered in court.
Kpanabom, who is in the batch that included Ibrahim Lavaly and eight others, took the witness stand as the first defense witness (DW1) after the prosecution had led its final witness.
The former Ecobank Bulk Teller, who resigned from his office before the investigations were initiated, said he was taken by his bosses to the CID headquarters for questioning on Tuesday 11 June.
“They left me there and went back to the bank’s headquarters with the two police investigators. They returned shortly and told me to make a statement and that I should say anything in defense of the bank without any fear as the bank would protect me”, DW1 said.
He said the investigators assured him that they were not after him but would fast track payment of his benefit if he cooperated with them.
“As my bosses had already told me what to say, I told the investigators that the matter under investigations was about payment of customs duties in respect of NPA”, he testified.
The money, over Le 393 million, was credited into the ASYCUDA system of the NRA, he said, adding that some amount was indeed posted but did not match the amount that was on the NRA records.
The accused also identified his statement and claimed that it was exactly what he had been asked by his bosses to say.
But state prosecutor, Abdul Rahman Mansaray said the statement should form a part of the evidence against the accused.
He said that if there was any inconsistency in the witness’ testimony, “it was minor and of no relevance to the issue before the court”. He urged that the statement be admitted to form part of the evidence.
Meanwhile, a detective police constable, 8593 Mohamed Sesay, had told the court that he obtained statement from the 9th accused on the matter on Monday 10 June this year.
A ruling on the statement issue will be delivered on Friday 15 November. The matter continues on 18 to 21 November, 2013.
(C) Politico 30/10/13
